Symbols of Magnificence
Hello, I am Boy.
Manhood in a Rubber Suit.
A long silent Scream
from my Liver
enters my Heart
and says, have you Eaten Love
for Breakfast; have you drunk
from the Formless Cup of Color?
And I remembered that
the Driver of this Car,
This Vehicle I love,
must be massaged
nourished
cared-for
Before the Exhausting
Typhoon of the
Early-Morning
Sun
The Quiet Tide of True Connection …
Evening is a “quiet time”.
Most people have settled slowly into the refuge of the night: reading, knitting, digesting, TV, dreams, sex, sleep.
The sun and moon hold the earth in their cradle and light slowly fades on the horizon of time. Other countries light up. Other people awake. Clusters and groups and families all seek their fame and fortune. Accomplishment. Survival. Enjoyment. Giving and Taking. Buying and Selling. The Market. The Temple. A bath in the Holy River.
There are “them” out there. This we know. A wild series of “them”. Legions of “them”. Unidentified scores and throngs of “them”. And who are they? They are a lot like you. And me. They are humans – going through the same routines, same dances, same prayers and celebrations as you and me.
Perception. We isolate ourselves and hide in the small caves allotted by our fears, our distrust, our acquired kingdoms, our well-financed sense of separation. These humans we see, we perceive, we visualize… are not only a lot like us, they are intricately connected to us.
This is where the “us and them” gimmick falls apart. We have two “monarchs” of perception that fight for the throne inside of us – our hearts and our minds. They mind is allied with ‘ego’, and perceives its kingdom as “owned”, separate, justified. The mind-ego is the King of Attachment and despite the ludicrousness of the whole affair – after all, we’re not taking this ‘stuff’ with us when we go – the mind views itself and it’s Kingdom as eternal, immortal and untouchable.
Familiar tune?
And then – the Heart. The heart does not “fight” for the throne, the heart ascends to the throne when the Mind/ego has finally understood its frailty, its stupidity and its ignorance and has surrendered its position because it can’t hold the house of Mortality together any more. The Heart is the Silent Partner that awaits in all of us – the center of sweetness. The innocent part of us that understands its true role as Speck of Dust in the hands of the Immortal. Out of our control. Gratitude. Oneness. Bliss.
The Heart also understands this foundation-point of “connection” between sentient beings. We humans – if we look at one another with the eyes of the heart – can immediately recognize our union and unity with all mankind. We are made of the same ‘stuff’. The Divine is visible – shining! – in each and every one of us. This is truly what unites us in its magnificence, its compassion, it’s deep love and understanding. And we each claim and own this light of the divine in our deepest hearts.
The Throne of Understanding.
It’s there.
It never left. It is us who left. And it is us who must find our way back.
Read MoreSupport & Clarity
There are two items on the Human Menu that became important for me today.
Support & Clarity.
The issue of “support” arose, because life is a challenge, period. No matter who we are. Everything from the basics of literal survival to the arrangements and intricacies of relationship, business contracts, living spaces, health struggles … and on and on.
In our societies, we are taught the value of “independence” as a strength. Rely on self only. Be strong. Don’t depend or lean on others. And yet, as human creatures, we are very fragile. In fact, extremely fragile. We break easily. Our apple-carts get upset easily. Because of this “independence” vein that’s programmed in there, and also because of the way societies are structured, we tend to get isolated easily. Alone in our own little room, so to speak.
The point is, we need others. We all need help along the way. When the illusions we protect ourselves with wear thin, we see and feel and know our own vulnerability. We need a hand to help us row the boat in the storm; but more than that, we need the voice to ask. This is the tricky part. Who wants to appear weak? Helpless? Homeless? In dire need?
The beauty of humans helping each other is that so much more can be done. One plus one truly becomes eleven. Two pairs of eyes, four pair of hands, a dozen strong legs … this type of spirit can truly build a city.
Clarity has to do with our purpose, our innate reason to be alive.
Most of us think that being alive has to do with fulfilling the fundamental mundane requirements of day-to-day life, being comfortable and happy due to a protective layer of material “padding” around us. For some of us, this no longer works.
The answer to why we’re here has to be deeper. It has to be more fundamental – it has to resonate with our “core”, our spirit, our true heart. It just can’t be tied to the “fluff”, the packaging, the eye-candy, make-up and gimmicks that propel the market-driven world along day after day.
There’s a voice inside of us that longs to be heard; longs to be listened to attentively; longs to have those deep, silent necessities take wing, be expressed by the heart and to the heart. We need not only to communicate with the deepest pearls inside our own “cave”, but we need also to bring those pearls out into the daylight – to celebrate them, to share them with others, to remind and affirm to our fellow travelers, that there is so much more to life than the mundane; there is so much more to feel, to drink deeply from, to celebrate, to share, to acknowledge. There is a dance to do that we all wait for, long for, pray for.
This “dance” IS the essential reason, the central purpose of human life. We know this in our core. Not because it was part of our educational or parental programming, but because we were born with it, we came into the world with it.
So, how important IS this? We, the weary travelers who come and go. We, who know in our guts that we’re just passing through, that we really don’t belong here, that this is really NOT our true home. How important is it to acknowledge the inner gift, the higher purpose, and to remind each other, so that we’re not lost and lonely in our isolated little rooms of discontent, attempting to “manage” the unmanageable – the meaningless day-to-day trivial pursuits that drain us, frustrate us, and exhaust us …?
Clarity: knowing self, reminding self, reminding others.
Every tiny spark of light helps us all see the way.
Read MoreHeart
We talk about the “heart”.
Do we know what this place is; do we know this feeling well enough to call it our home?
When I grew up, we were not instructed in the understanding of this. The only “heart” we knew was the embarrassing crimson blob we’d see on Valentine’s cards from adoring classmates, once a year. Then, of course, the word was used carefully, guardedly, in relation to romance and those fleeting bottle-of-wine-in-the-meadow moments that often turn into jaded and forgotten memories.
And “heart”, for most of us, became an unknown item on an illegible menu in a cafe whose doors were closed to business.
Read More